Christmas
Cold turkey: is a Christmas tradition coming to an end?
When I recently asked younger work friends about the prospect of turkey for Christmas dinner, it was greeted with grim…
Four times Boris said this Christmas would be better than last
‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…’ Or it certainly was until Omicron intervened. For the latest Covid variant has…
It’s not up to Boris to save Christmas – it’s up to us
How well-behaved have you been in the second year of Covid? I wouldn’t say I’ve been perfect but I haven’t…
The moment I fell in love with music
I’ve lived in Chelsea for the past 35 years. Since 2002, I’ve photographed everything I find interesting here — churches,…
The torment of a tasting menu: Hélène Darroze at the Connaught reviewed
The Connaught Hotel’s formal dining room was always, to me, a place of childish myth; more comforting for being mythical.…
Stratton resigns – but the row isn't over
The row over the Downing Street ‘party’ has claimed its first victim. On Wednesday Allegra Stratton announced that she was…
Why the No. 10 Christmas 'party' story matters
It’s crime week for the government — with Boris Johnson and his ministers set to unveil a range of measures…
The forever ‘war on Christmas’
It seems to get earlier each year, doesn’t it? It’s not yet even December, and the Mail on Sunday has…
Lockdown creations: the best of the year’s cookery books reviewed
‘I may, one day, stop making notes and writing down recipes,’ Nigel Slater says in A Cook’s Book (Fourth Estate,…
What exactly is the ‘festive season’?
‘Here you are, darling,’ I said to my husband. ‘These lines might have been written for you: “Drinke, quaffe, be…
Why Christmas sends a shiver down my spine
Does Christmas send a shiver down your spine? It should. We seek at this time of year to reclaim the…
Christmas raises the most basic political question
A few years ago, around this time of year, I overheard a nice exchange in a charity shop (I was…
The grumpy genius of Raymond Briggs
No one captures better than Raymond Briggs the ambivalence that many of us feel towards the festive season, says Daisy Dunn
It’s been a tough year for socialites
New York Here we go again, the annual holiest of holies is upon us, although to this oldie last Christmas…
I Live Here Now: a short story by Ian Rankin
A short story. Illustrated by Carolyn Gowdy
Theresa May’s recipe for Christmas cake
This recipe was given to me years ago by an old friend — hence the imperial measurements — and I…
How to find hope in a year filled with despair
Finding hope in a year like no other
The wonderful ghosts of Christmas past
Seances, trikes and the miracle of tinfoil
A romcom with very little com: BBC1’s Black Narcissus reviewed
In Black Narcissus, based on the novel by Rumer Godden, five nuns set off for a remote Himalayan palace in…
Food to absorb alcohol: Christmas hampers reviewed
There is straw inside the Fortnum & Mason Christmas Treat Hamper (£100). As the straw drifts through the house, it…
On the trail of one of the first artists to paint ordinary things
The Master of Flémalle was one of the first painters to depict in detail the reality of ordinary things. But who was he? Martin Gayford finds a prime suspect
The anxieties that long ago shadowed Christmas are back
The anxieties that long ago shadowed Christmas are back
The Darvell marvel has brought joy to a Covid Christmas
Many ingenious ways of evading Covid-19 have been devised to assist commerce, fewer to assist worship. In our next-door village,…
Do divorces really increase after Christmas?
Now and then Were households allowed to mix at Christmas during the plague? Samuel Pepys’s diary entry for 25 December…
